make one new recipe from each cookbook on my shelf

Ann Willan – Chicken Classics _{Greek version}

I bought this book back in 93 and so far I have only made the first recipe for roasted chicken (Chateau de Fey, if my spelling is correct).

I made the Southern fried chicken for the picnic sans the sauce.
It felt like the perfect recipe for a picnic, and it truly was! 2 years ago

I made the pot pie. It was incredible. I can’t wait to make it again. Basically it’s garbanzo beans and vegetables with excellent seasoning. An hour before it’s done you quickly make a dough of sorts and drop it on top. It was so delicious that my son enjoyed it as much as I did. 2 years ago

Community cookbooks are wonderful. Junior League cookbooks generally lead the pack in this area, but church societies, chambers of commerce, and other groups put together pretty good collections too. I like the recipes because they are usually tried and true and sure to please.

Fog City Delights is the 1987 cookbook put out by the “Letterman Auxiliary” of the Letterman Army Medical Center that used to be in the Presidio in San Francisco (it has since been torn down and replaced with the more attractive Lucas Center).

Although “Cheddary Tomato Fish Fillets” may sound dubious, it was really tasty.

2 tablespoons butter
1 pound fish fillets
1/2 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped onions
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1 medium tomato, shopped
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Melt butter in large skillet. Add fillets, turning to coat both sides. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the onions, parsley, and tomatoes over the fillets. Cover and cook over low heat for 7 to 9 minutes. Sprinkle cheese over the top and cover. Cook 1 to 2 minutes, until the cheese melts. Serves 4. 3 years ago

Other than The Joy of Cooking, this was the first cookbok I ever owned. The recipes now seem “so ‘80s” to me—but that isn’t a bad thing. I am often nostalgic for those ‘80s treats I used to make, like these “Toffee Bars” that were easy and very good:

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg yolk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9×12 baking pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolk; beat well.
3. Sift in flour, mixing well, then add vanilla. Spread batter in greased pan. Bake for 25 minutes.
4. Cover cake layer with chocolate chips and return to oven for 3 or 4 minutes.
5. Remove pan from oven and spead melted chocolate evenly. Sprinkle with nuts. Cool in pan completely before cutting.

About 30 bars.

The only change I made was adding a little salt to the batter because I used usalted butter. 3 years ago

Friends from Minneapolis gave me this cookbook from their favorite restaurant, Cafe Brenda—a “seafood and vegetarian cuisine” restaurant. I made the White Bean and Squash soup, which was not bad, but a little bland. It benefited from doubling the herbs and adding a healthy dose of hot sauce and a little butter melted on top (what wouldn’t?).

The paraphrased version of the recipe is:

Soak 1 cup of dried navy beans eight hours or overnight.

To make the soup, bring beans to boil in 5 cups water. Reduce heat, simmer for about an hour or until tender. Drain.

Sauté in olive oil for about 5 minutes: 4 garlic cloves, chopped; one large shallot, chopped; one medium onion, chopped.

Add 3 ½ cups peeled, cubed (1”) winter squash (butternut).

Combine squash/onion mix with cooked beans, 4 cups vegetable stock, ½ teaspoon dried basil, ½ teaspoon dried oregano, and ¼ teaspoon dried thyme. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered until squash is tender (about 20 minutes).

Puree soup in batches in blender or food processor. \

Return to pot and add ¾ cup half and half; salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 6. 3 years ago

Every once in a while, without prompting that I know of on my part, I receive a cookbook in the mail from Cook’s Illustrated. Every time it happens I am a bit annoyed…until I open the book. Ok so sure I didn’t ASK for them to send it to me but now that I look through the pages…GODSEND!

Tonight I made the skillet baked ziti. It was quick and vegetarian. I happened to have everything on hand. Everyone liked it a lot. They won’t crave this dish but they won’t be disappointed to see it on the table either. Did I mention exactly how easy it was? No boiling pasta. Gotta love that! 3 years ago

I read this odd book over vacation last week. It is mostly commentary on food and cooking, with a few recipes in the back—sort of like an MFK Fisher book, but without the cache. I do not know anything about the author, George Jacobs, or why he wrote a book about cooking. He is not a chef. I gather that he is some kind of bon vivant, artist, occasional ex-pat who enjoys food. His musings are mildly interesting, but nothing memorable. Maybe I could write a book about food?

I tried to make burre blanc sauce following his directions. It didn’t work at all. It was melted butter with some shallots and a slight vinegary flavor. It never got thick.

I’ll try again someday. 4 years ago

By Leanne Ely

This book is fabulous. The recipes are easy and healthy. Occasionally I find them very smart as well. Like how in a lot of ground beef recipes she adds uncooked oatmeal. It adds bulk and fiber and not a single person in my family knew there was any oatmeal there at all.

Another smart technique is how she tells you to make extra…say mashed potatoes so that you can use them for Shepard’s pie the next night. This was very helpful.

I’ve made the following:

Crockpot Pea Soup (A+)
Baked Rigatoni (A+)
Greek Pasta (B)
Garlic Lime Chicken (A+)
Tuna Fusilli ( C )

Next up: Green chile and chicken casserole.

This book is one of my favorites and it really has helped “Save Dinner”. 4 years ago

I made hot fudge two nights ago. In fact there is still some in the refrigerator calling my name.

A while ago I made the frozen vanilla yogurt from this book as well. Both things I’ve made turned out really well. This book is divine. Every recipe is mouth-watering. 4 years ago

I finally made homemade baklava like my hubby’s mother used to make—from her old cook book. A little labor-intensive, but not difficult. Super yummy and it got even better after about two or three days. 4 years ago

Mmmmmmmmm . . . . yummy shrimp and bacon kabobs with pickled onion and avocado salad. The recipe was simple, although it involved a lot of separate parts.

Use one pound of raw shrimp—peeled and deveined, but with the tails on. The recipe called for 16-20/pound shrimp, which Safeway didn’t have, so I used 20-25/pound shrimp and they worked fine.

Start the salad first:

Thinly slice one red onion and soak for one hour in white vinegar.

Chop two avocados into medium chunks. Seed and core one medium tomato and chop into 1/2” to 1” chunks. Toss avocado and tomato with 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup fresh lime juice, 1 tablespoon cumin, and 1 teaspoon crushed garlic. Set in fridge while onions soak.

Right before serving, drain the vinegar off the onion; toss the onions with the rest of the salad; add 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro. (See NOTE.)

To make the kebobs:

Dice 8 oz of slab bacon (the kind that isn’t pre-sliced) into 1/2 oz cubes. Blanch in boiling water for about 1 minute to they are cooked before the go on the grill.

Thread the kebobs: alternate shrimp, a cube of bacon, a 1” red pepper chunk, a 1” piece of green onion, repeat. I got 3 shrimp and 2 of everything else on a 9” stick. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Grill over medium heat for about 3 minutes or so, until the shrimp are cooked through but not dried out.

Serve kebobs on top of the salad.

NOTE: There were a couple of things I would change about the recipe.

1) The bacon, even though it was cooked through and gave good flavor to the shrimp, was too blubbery to eat. I don’t know what to do about that.

2) Unless you REALLY love onions, use only half or less of what the recipe calls for. I made them all, but only used about 1/3.

3) The salad needs something crunchy. I served it on a couple of romaine leaves and that turned out to be a very good addition.

All in all, a good recipe because it got me to try shrimp kebobs on the grill. Needs individualization, but I will make this one again. 4 years ago

Junior League cookbooks are a big favorite of mine, so I was extra disappointed that the recipe I tried from the Eugene, Oregon book didn’t turn out very good.

I made Pork Chops Florentine, which sounded like a good combo: slow cooked pork chops on a bed of spinach, smothered in a cheesy sauce. But smothered doesn’t come close to describing the incredible amount of goo involved. There was something way off in the ratio of sauce to food. And, of course, the sauce got so mixed into the spinach that there was no way to separate everything once it was cooked. It was an unappetizing mess.

Oh well, they can’t all be winners. 4 years ago

I love my 1968 edition of this book! It gives a little description of the dish or tells a story about it, then tells you what to serve with it to make a complete dinner (along the lines of “serve with a butter lettuce salad; dinner rolls; and sliced peaches”),

Last night I made “Poulet Marengo” and it was pretty tasty. I’d make it again. I used more basil and more garlic than the recipe called for. Also, I couldn’t find a 2 1/2 pound chicken, so I used a normal grocery store chicken (around 4 pounds) and just added a little more liquid, tomatoes, and mushrooms to make enough sauce.

1/2 c. flour
salt & pepper
t. dried basil
2 1/2 lb. chicken, cut into parts
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. olive oil
1 c. dry white wine
1 jigger (1 1/5 oz.) brandy
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 1/5 cups chopped canned tomatoes
1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced

Mix the salt, pepper, basil, and flour. Dredge the chicken parts. Save the remaining flour mixture. Sauté the chicken in the butter and oil until well-browned on all sides. Transfer chicken to covered casserole.

Add the remaining flour to the butter and oil and stir with a whisk until it is dissolved. Slowly add the wine and brandy, stirring until well mixed and thickened. Add the garlic, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Stir well.

Pour sauce over chicken. Cover casserole dish. Cook in 350 oven for 30-40 minutes* or until the chicken is done.

The books said to serve with noodles, a Belgian endive salad, and wine sorbet with sliced strawberries.

• I left it in the oven for 90 minutes because I don’t like undercooked chicken. It was delicious. The leftovers will probably be even better because the flavors will really have soaked in and melded. 4 years ago

I made the red potato casserole side dish to go with our grilled burgers tonight.

Unfortunately it sucked.

Next! ::Quickly flags down the next cookbook in line of sight:: 5 years ago

Caprial’s Bistro is one of my favorite restaurants in Portland. I also love her on her tv show and have learned a lot by watching her (I am indebted to her for fixing my pie crust—I needed to use more water, as I learned from one show). But, this cookbook doesn’t really do much for me. The recipes, like the items on Caprial’s bistro menu, are deceptively simple. But the things I make never taste as good as they do at her restaurant. Of course, I’m not a world-class chef; she is. She must have secret ways (yes, called “talent”) that makes things taste super yummy.

I tried the Seared Ahi with Five-Spice Glaze. It was not hard to make, and it was good, but like every other time I’ve tried searing tuna at home, it doesn’t come out like at a restaurant. It was nice and rare in the middle, but it was like a rare steak—it was cooked on the outside and faded to rare in the middle. But at a restaurant, it is cooked on the very outer edge, and then rare really all the way through. I can never do that at home. I think it is because I can’t get the pan hot enough or something.

So, tasty, but I won’t be making it again. 5 years ago

Wow..I actually through out a cooking magazine! That is unheard of for me..I am a recipe-aholic. I am working on another, “good foods kids love”. I made some good pancakes, smoothies, pizza with faces..that kind of thing. Again, I can’t seem to make just one thing. I picked about 10 or so to make this month. 5 years ago

I made Marinated Goat Cheese for a Halloween pot luck. It was just several garlic cloves simmered in olive oil until they were soft, cooled, then poured over disks of goat cheese with more olive oil to just cover and some pitted kalamata olives. The recipe called for Nicoise olives, but I didn’t want pits. Refridgerate overnight. Bring to room temp and serve with crackers or bread.

It may have been the simplest recipe in the book. And although I make fun of this book, people loved the cheese—they ate every bit. 5 years ago

Unbelievably, I don’t know if I can find a recipe in this book to make. The individual dishes are complicated or labor-intensive. Waters is particularly fond of leg of lamb, lobsters, and quail and her recipes for these show the difficulty in preparing them at home.

First, most of the lamb recipes call for spit-roasting the leg of lamb. She even explains how to build a spit. In my spit-deficient kitchen, those recipes are not possible.

Second, while I find a steamed lobster to be a wonderful treat on a special occasion, Waters takes the fun out of it with instructions to semi-cook a lobster, then remove the meat and make a fumet with the shells – a process involving roasting the shells, making the broth, putting the shells in a blender, then straining the whole thing through a fine sieve – then finish cooking the lobster. Whew!

Finally, quail do not usually show up on my dinner table, but if they did, I do not think I’d have the dedication to follow Walter’s recipes. In most of her quail recipes she gives similar instructions: “Marinate the quail in a cool place overnight . . . turning the quail four to five times during this time.” No little boney bird is worth losing a night of sleep.

Reading this Menu Cookbook made me want to spring for dinner at Chez Panisse, but it did not make me want to don an apron and start cooking. Maybe I can find a salad recipe I can make. 5 years ago

i CAN’T DO JUST ONE…from this Martha Stewart magazine I have, so I may have to do five from each book…
I have made some new things from this magazine I will remake again…
Homemade applesauce (fabulous!)
pizza moons
hot dog crescents (kids love it)
Will not be making the crabcakes again. They were disgusting.
Making baked apples tomorrow, and maybe and applesauce cake. There is an apple chapter and ALL the recipes look great. 5 years ago

There are over 100 cookbooks on my bookshelf and I hardly ever use them. There are some that I have never even opened, let alone used.

Starting about a year ago, I decided to make one new recipe out of each book. I’ve gone through about 20 so far. There is no rhyme or reason to my method—going across the shelf, I just flip through a book until I find a recipe that appeals to me. I keep a list of what recipes I make, with a note about whether it is worth making again. Then I move on to the next book.

Some of the new recipes are great, and have become standards in my kitchen (Best Ever Brisket from the Colorado Jr. League cookbook, Warm Red Cabbage Salad from the Greens Restaurant cookbook). Some weren’t so good. But it has been worthwhile to try new dishes, even if they don’t all end up as new favorites. 5 years ago